Apple debuts iPhone 2.0 firmware

We’ve already written about the business and app support for iPhone 2.0, but what about the other goodies available in the firmware? It’ll be available free from July for iPhone owners, while it’ll cost £9.95 for those with the iPod touch.

Scott Forstall, Senior Vice President of iPhone Software, talked about running background apps – a much requested feature “from clients like IM, where by their very nature they want to get a notification even if the user isn't running the app.”

He didn’t mention Windows Mobile, but certainly poked fun at it, talking about background processes that “continue to run even after [quitting].”

Forstall said: "We've come up with a far better solution. A push notification service Apple will provide to all developers.” This is extremely powerful, and completely changes everything we’d previously thought about the kind of apps available on the iPhone.

Basically, Apple will have a IP connection to your phone which a third party server can then ping and push things like text alerts oover the air – working over both Wi-Fi and mobile networks. This will be available in September.

Much better document support

Other features include easy contact search plus full support for doucuments – both Apple iWork and Microsoft Office. Word and Excel docs can now be viewed properly while PowerPoint support is new.

You can now handle docs properly on your iPhone. You can bulk delete and move them too – as well as save images you get sent.

The iPhone also now supports other languages with multiple entry such as Chinese (simplified and traditional) and there will even be character drawing with your finger. Now that’s cool. Less cool for kids are the new parental control modes but hey, they do get a scientific mode on the calculator…